«Alien abduction»

(March 23, 2009)

As I said
some time ago (December 13, 2008), I completely rewrote this page, to cope with new
knowledge and understanding of this intriguing phenomenon. The
improving of the Internet also allowed me for a real checking of some
information sources I previously used (1999), and discover that some
were not reliable. This allowed me to correct today (2009) some
erroneous conclusions of the former page. So this page today is
really WHAT SCIENCE CAN SAY TODAY ABOUT «ALIEN ABDUCTION».

In
the same way, I also removed from sale my book «Quiet
Abduction» which contained these erroneous conclusions. What I
have to say today is much shorter and does not deserve a book, but it
is still interesting. My book
«General Epistemology» will
be also corrected, while I put the version 2 on line.

However
«Alien abduction» is still today a difficult topic, stuck
between fanatic believers and rationalistic taboos. But we shall see
that both are false.

The «facts», or rather
the testimonies

The «alien
abduction» «facts» are usually described into three
categories of testimonies:

1)
RR4 or CEIV (close encounters of the
fourth kind) They are close UFO
encounters where the witness enters «into» the UFO. There
are about 200 known cases. Most usually, the witnesses reports seeing
an object approaching (usually called a «flying saucer»
and identified as a «spaceship»). From this object,
characters appear (usually identified as «extraterrestrials»,
or by the racist name «alien»). They take the witness
into the object, where he is submitted to various absurd «medical
tests» strongly hinted at sex or reproduction. In a second
phase more psychological or spiritual experiences take place, ranging
from torture to ecstasy. Then the witness is rejected on the ground,
often heavily shocked. Checked anomalies of time and other physically
impossible effects are the common rule, while other witnesses often
see the hijacking.

2)
Experiences in the bedroom. Millions of
people claim to have these. The scenario and content are similar, but
the experience takes place into the bedroom of the witness, without
the appearance of a «spaceship». The characters are most
often called the «Greys», from their shady appearance,
and identified as «extraterrestrials». But they can also
look like devils, CIA agents, etc. In some cases, the witness is
«examined» on the place, in others he is beamed through
the ceiling into a «spaceship». No other witnesses, no
physical of checkable evidences are provided by these experiences.

3)
Intermediate cases. After abduction
activists, they may be thousands, and feature elements of the both
two previous categories, more some specific ones: implants, missing
foetus, scars and «scoop marks», unexplainable healings.

So
many common elements in both 3 categories strongly hint at a
gradation into an unique phenomenon. This however was my previous
theory. And, in facts, the 3 categories are often confused into only
one phenomenon, into the pro or anti propaganda as well. Believers
interpret all these testimonies as physical actions of nasty
extraterrestrials («aliens») who «probe» us,
using parapsychology-like methods (But that they explain as high
technology, such as micro-wave remote control on the brain, from here
their practice of the «tin foil hat» to avoid them). On
the other hand, «rationalists» just reject all the
testimonies at a whole, without inquiry, as illusions or
fabrications, even those which existence was scientifically
demonstrated.

Reliability of the testimonies

Before
any attempt to pose interpretations or hypothesis, we must first
check the reliability of the data:

1)
RR4 or CIEV Most of the about 200 known
cases were thoroughly checked using rational inquiry methods,
witnesses confrontation, etc. Lesser UFO cases were found materially
true, or at least unexplained, each time an official scientific
agency studied them (Condom report, french CNES, etc). So we must
envision that such things may happen physically, as incredible as
they look like.

2)
Experiences in the bedroom. There are
no physical evidences of them, only psychological effects (ranging
from severe shock to beautiful spiritual unfolding). But these
reports exactly match a known phenomenon, most often called sleep
paralysis. The existence of this phenomenon is recognized by
scientists and neurologists studying sleep. It is not understood, but
it is commonly interpreted as a different kind of dream. In this
experience, we usually see our bedroom around us, but we also feel
paralyzed, zapped, crushed, sexually undertaken by shadowy
characters, flying through the ceiling, etc. Just as the «abductees»
report.

Science
studies showed that these experiences are very common (about 25% of
people had them at least once, and some have them often). Of course
there is no known reason to think that the characters seen in sleep
paralysis are real. They are very probably just dream visions. So it
is not astonishing to find here all kind of imaginary but remarkable
characters like extraterrestrials, devils or CIA agents (and I myself
had all the collection of them). Often the characters are fuzzy and
brownish, from here their name the «Greys».

Parapsychologists
usually don't consider sleep paralysis as a parapsychological
phenomenon by itself. But they noted that it
is much more conductive of this than the common dreams.

3)
Intermediate cases. Alas, most of these
intermediate cases rely on notoriously unsafe inquiry methods, such
as hypnosis (often with heavy hypnotic suggestion), witnesses that
nobody can contact, or selection of elements in testimonies, by
fanatic «enquirers» who are willing to «demonstrate»
their belief.

For
instance the most well known case, the
Linda Cortile case, seems a strong evidence of the link between the
three categories: Linda reported to have been hijacked in her
bedroom, while in the same time several witnesses (including not less
than Javier Perez de Cuellar, the former UN director!) saw a luminous
flying saucer hovering at the level of Linda's window, high on
a building in Manhattan! Other elements added with time, such as a
«scandalous» love affair into the UFO, secrets agents,
etc.

But
this story is just too nice: most of
the elements of Linda's testimony were obtained by hypnosis,
and the UFO witnesses are known only by anonymous letters received by
Bud Hopkins, who can even not tell their family names! And of course
Xavier Perez de Cuellar strongly denied ever having witnessed an UFO.
So the whole affair clearly appears as a fabrication, and the only
safe thing remaining is that Linda just had a very common sleep
paralysis.

Similar
reasoning could be made about most other
intermediary cases, and some important ones evoked in books even not
appear on a search with Google (or only as quotes of these books).
This lack of seriousness is enough to remove any credit to the people
who noisily wave these intermediate cases.

This
much deflates the intermediate category. However there is still a
remaining, such as some strong cases of sleep paralysis with checked
parapsychological effects (I myself had a checked ESP at the occasion
of a sleep paralysis), and also some cases of RR4 with elements of
the intermediate category. But nothing to really bridge the gap
between the RR4 and the sleep paralysis. So nothing proves it is the
same phenomenon.

General statement on the phenomenon

So what
can we now infer safely about all this?

We can say
that the «alien abduction phenomenon» involving millions
of persons just does not exist physically as such. These millions of
persons just had sleep paralysis, a common dream-like phenomenon
which does not imply any kind of physical action or communication
with any entity on Earth or beyond.

So,
that so many persons believe to have been physically hijacked by
extraterrestrials is clearly the result of a deliberate
misinformation by some authors: presenting a benign dream-like
phenomenon like a terrifying physical experience with real hostile
«aliens». Not astonishing, thus, if the other ingredients
of this sauce are rumours effects, false science, horror movie stuff
and conspiracy theories.

We must
here stop and feel some responsibility toward so many persons induced
into terror and thinking that society at large is intrinsically bad.

We must
not underestimate the power of manipulation. I myself knew somebody
clever and fine, who is now an international business leader. But at
this time he was induced into sincerely believing that he went into
an extraterrestrial spaceship, while having no memories of this! He
was told this story by a so-called «contactee»,
marvellously gifted at inventing very nice stories. But this bloke
soon showed to be a very ordinary petty crook. This, fortunately,
opened the eyes of his victims.

However,
each time science methods were used to check UFO, NDE, ESP, etc. the
conclusion was that these phenomena were real, and materially
observable, to the difference of dreams or sociological effects. So
it appears really strange that a majority of scientists still
considers these facts as heretic and refuse to study them. This
totally arbitrarian prejudice just hampers a real research on these
facts and their significance.

We
must remember that science is today the most respected source of
information and understanding. So, when the visible facts and the
science community don't speak together, it always results into
a great trouble. And in the instance of «alien abduction»,
it sets a very favourable ground for conspiracy theories: when
scientists debunk without studying, they play exactly the role the
manipulators want them to play into their show.

So, to the
contrary of a prejudice-ridden approach, examining facts and
reasoning on them sheds light and understanding where the mere
denegation just feed the paranoia. This is the efficient mean to stop
senseless rumours and fear, and save useless suffering to thousands
of terrorized readers of conspiracy books. But we have more: as we
shall see under, this approach also reveals some real mysteries and
several useful conclusions.

Interesting or useful conclusions

Sleep
paralysis, once free of any inappropriate
emotional grasp, remains an interesting phenomenon. Why? Because
persons who often have them can meditate in order to control and
modify them, in a much more efficient way than with ordinary dreams.
Especially it is much easier for practicizing dream yoga. It is easy
to check that meditating on the emptiness of fear, and doing nice
visualizations about them, can lead to pleasant experiences. It is
what I did, with success, until sleep paralysis stopped to happen to
me. Of course we must welcome the sexual content of them: prudishness
is as efficient as fear to make the experience unpleasant! So there
is NO reason that people having sleep paralysis may fear them. First,
because they are only dream experiences, and second because we can
make them pleasant. For this reason the crooks who continue to
frighten people with ugly and false stories are criminals.

This
mean to make sleep paralysis pleasant (or at least suppress the fear
of them) will be especially of interest for people victims of
narcolepsis, a (non-psychiatric) disease
which produces various symptoms which may have been interpreted as
harassments by «spirits» or «aliens».

Sleep
paralysis are not something new. They are well known from tradition,
where they are called «nightmare» (night phantom) or in
french «cauchemar» (crushing phantom,
by reference to the frequent feeling of being sexually laid under) or
in german «alpentraum» (dream of Elf). These words refer
precisely to sleep paralysis, and not to any bad dream. It is
astounding and ridiculous to see how today people are severed from
any tradition, to the point of using every day a word of which they
forgot and confuse the true meaning. If people had kept their link to
the past traditions, or at least heeded their grand family advices
instead of the TV, they would identify the nightmare at once, and
just left it pass without making it important, instead of
«discovering a new phenomenon» and becoming receptive to
lies and fearsome theories.

Sleep
paralysis very probably are what the Middle
Age fanatic priests called visits of incubus and succubus «demons».
So it is remarkable that they were already used to sadistically
terrorize people or make them feel guilty of imaginary faults!

Another
important fact about sleep paralysis is
that they sometimes display strong parapsychological phenomenon like
ESP or OBE. So people who often have sleep paralysis provide us with
a practical mean to observe these phenomena which cannot be produced
at will. And they provided us with the
best
available evidences (in
french). Also there is a significant statistical relation with the
ability to have sleep paralysis and the ability to have NDE, hinting
at some link.

About
UFO and CEIV (RR4), we still not know today what they are. But we now
have a troubling resemblance between the physical RR4 scenarios and
the sleep paralysis dream scenarios. How could two so different
phenomena present the same stories to the witnesses?

This
sends us to a little known hypothesis we
owe to Bertrand Méheust (1978). This hypothesis doesn't
refuse the materiality of the UFOs, but it rejects the common
explanation of extraterrestrial spaceships, because it is ridden with
so many incoherence and absurdities. Instead, Bertrand Méheust
remarks that RR4 scenarios strongly resemble early 1920 sci-fi
scenarios. These sci-fi scenarios in turn resemble older folklore
stories of people hijacked by fairies, with just a swap in cultural
context. This strongly suggests that faeries tales would be older
manifestations of the same phenomenon, which were interpreted with
the concepts of these times, faeries instead of extraterrestrials.
But what Bertrand Méheust seems not to foresee was that we now
find the same scenarios into the sleep paralysis! There must be
something into our psyche which produces the same scenarios into many
different situations: artistic inspiration, dream situations,
unexplained physical situations like in RR4. This is a real mystery,
that nobody can fathom today.